


The Multiking

by Kintatsujo



Series: Where Did You Come From [1]
Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Ankh is deluding himself, Gen, King OOO could use better press, Pre-Canon, Speculation, The Wonderful Movie is not in my canon, medieval times were tough, short chapters are short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-06
Updated: 2012-12-06
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kintatsujo/pseuds/Kintatsujo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He would heal the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Um, my short little Christmas fic had a baby. And then it got kinda bigger than its momma.
> 
> No, it's not necessary to read this fic with that one, but it explores things that one made me think about.

     Ankh's first memory was of pain.  The alchemists had birthed the Greeed by ripping one medal from ten, and he couldn't believe that their results were accidental-- the only answer was that they had _wanted_ these ferocious warriors.

     So when Ankh had offered them his curiousity, had expressed the desire that a child offers a parent, why had they thrown him away?  How had he-- how had any of his siblings-- earned the disgust that inspired the alchemists to drive them from sight?

     Ankh pondered this at length while he watched the human village.  The king's soldiers were hunting him, he knew.  He also didn't care in the slightest.  For some reason, humans didn't look up all that much when they were looking for things.  He recognized them each for their desires, although most of their desires were pretty simple; some desired to feed their children, some desired to have a pretty wife, and some desired to have the pretty wife next door.

     There wasn't much to them, these humans.

     The king wasn't in the village.  Normally, of course, he lived in the fantastic castle that he had built, a massive fortification that towered over the surrounding villages like a promise of something more.  Right now, though, he slept in a camp outside the village that Ankh was watching.

     The Greeed lived in the castle.  They had devoured most of the alchemists.

     Ankh watched as a small boy "sparred" with a soldier, probably his father.  He considered sweeping down on them, snatching them away and taking the feeling between them for himself, but it wouldn't be enough.  He couldn't feel it to the extent they did.  It would inevitably ebb away as they themselves faded.  The one alchemist they had spared explained that this must be because they, as inhuman, couldn't hold human feelings within themselves.  Ankh would only ever feel the complexity they felt by proxy.

     Ankh was here to find out if he could change that.


	2. Chapter 2

     "You're certainly clever, to have made it in here with nary a gasp at your presence."

     The king sat in the dark, but to Ankh he was a beacon of desire, complex desire, simple desire, the desire for all things and the desire to have them just _so_.  He was also the bearer of the driver, and while Ankh knew he couldn't understand _color_ , having no experience of it, the way the alchemist talked about color was the way the king, OOO, stood out in the haze of Ankh's perception.

     OOO reclined on a heavy chair, no fear in his posture.  If anything, he seemed tired.  Weariness was something that Ankh _could_ understand.  It was why he was here now.

     "You aren't transformed," Ankh said.

     "Alas," OOO murmured peacefully, "I am not yet a god.  I still need sleep."

     Ankh scoffed.  He needed sleep too, but he didn't lower his defenses just because of a stupid thing like _that_. 

     "Why have you come?" OOO asked.  He shifted so that his legs were over the armrest and crossed his ankles, folding his hands across his belly and staring at Ankh, the desire to have his curiousity answered radiating off him like the alchemist's descriptions of "heat."

     "Perhaps I am here to destroy you while you sleep," Ankh suggested, "Since you aren't transformed when you indulge that need."

    The king chuckled.  "If your desire had been to kill me, I would already be dead, would I not?  My alchemists claimed that you Greeed were failures, too simple-minded to be of any use, but I can see that they were very wrong about at least one of you."

     Ankh swayed for half a breath, startled at the little shock of pain that hit him from nowhere.  It must be because he had been neglecting his need for Cell medals as of late, he decided.  There were other things that needed his attention more, though.  "What do you mean, they were wrong about me?"

     OOO yawned.  "Obviously," he said, "You are crafty enough to evade my men looking for you even as you slip into my camp and steal into my tent."

     "Sometimes the simplest solution is the best," Ankh answered.  "I flew."

     "Of course you did," OOO said.  "But why?  It wasn't for this lovely conversation, I'm sure."

     Ankh hesitated.  It was mad.  It was _stupid_.  The alchemist had said he could never be satisfied, and as his creator the alchemist had to be right, didn't he?

     "If you fulfilled your desire and became a god," he all but whispered, "Do you think you could give me the power to truly experience the world for myself?"

     "If I become the god that I desire to be," OOO assured him, "I could find a way."


	3. Chapter 3

     Flight was power, and for that reason alone, if he had been capable, Ankh would have loved it.  Something about hurtling through the air, rising as high as he could, falling only to catch himself, seeing everything below him shrunken and toylike, as though he could take it in hand--

     Flight eased the pain that growled always in the hole within him.

     OOO wanted him to make cell medals.  More importantly, OOO wanted him to make cell medals that OOO would then use.  It was a strange concept to Ankh, and suggested that perhaps OOO was already a little less human than he seemed.

     OOO wanted to work with him.

     The idea wasn't completely foreign.  Kazari wanted them to all be a "team," whatever he thought that meant, and hadn't reacted well to Uva going his own way.  But then, Kazari was also watching him from the tallest tower of the castle, and may well have been searching for him since he'd left the day before.  Ankh veered toward him, alighting on the balcony wall.

     "Where have you been?" he asked, as Ankh knew he would.  "You haven't been off feeding alone, have you?"

     Ankh's sense of intent was less sharp than his sense of desires, but he could tell that Kazari was suspicious and angry that he might have made a Yummy somewhere far away, so that he wouldn't have to share.  Kazari expected them all to share.  Mezool, of course, did it easily, and Gamel didn't care, but Uva regarded any hands near his cell medals as threats to his well being.

     Ankh himself mainly found it pathetic.  He found all of it pathetic.

     "I don't have to answer to you, Kazari," he said.  "But no, I have not fed at all."

     "Ohh," Kazari cooed, like a flirtatious woman.  Ankh was unsure where he'd picked that up.  "So you've been out and about just to get away from the rest of us, have you?  Watching the humans again?"

     Ankh turned away from him and entered the castle.  "We have learned everything we are from humans, Kazari.  You might consider following my example."

     Kazari followed.  "Why bother watching from afar?" he asked, hips swaying, hands behind his head in a boyish gesture.  "You could just devour them and get what they have that way."

     _Not everything_ , Ankh thought.  Uva was brooding in the rafters, having finally admitted that the castle was the safest place to be and that the other Greeed were too powerful combined for him to simply drive them out.  OOO had taught them pain and had fettered their rampage that first time out.  It was easier, safer to rest here.

     _But how safe would it be at OOO's side?_

     Mezool and Gamel sat in the court.  Gamel was snacking on moldy chairs and old food from the stores; Mezool was entertaining herself by feeding him.

     Across the court hall, chained to the floor where the dogs had once slept, lay the alchemist.  He stared at Gamel's dessicated feast: Ankh could feel hunger rolling off him almost tangibly.  In the corner nearest to him hung one of Mezool's Yummy broods.  It filled the room with the soft sound of medals.

     "That's a new one," he commented.  "Wasn't it one of Uva's yesterday?"

     "We had to kill it early," Kazari said with an exaggerated sigh.  "Gamel was upset that it was stealing his pigs."  Uva grumbled something rude from the rafters.

     Ankh eyed one of the "pigs," part of the pile strewn across the floor by Gamel's side.  He didn't know a lot about human food, but he was fairly sure they didn't eat the bones of things.

     _Yes, your purpose was to serve me_ , OOO had said.  _Your purpose was to harness desire._

     Ankh had considered telling the others about his visit with the king, but had already known he would not do it.  "Has he said anything new?" he asked.

     "No," Mezool said.  "Just the same dreary talk of how he's going to show us all someday."  She chuckled against her hand girlishly.  "I do believe the poor thing has finally lost his mind."

     "That doesn't matter so long as he has desires," Uva put in.  "So long as he can give us medals, nothing else about him matters."

     OOO wanted him to help destroy these fools.

     The only reason Ankh had come back was to remind himself why he had said yes.

 


	4. Chapter 4

     "This is the first man I want you to use," OOO said.  They stood in the pebble road that ran down the center of the village, and had gathered a small audience.

     Ankh studied him.  He was afraid, but defiant, staring at Ankh with spread feet and fisted hands.  His desire was perfect for OOO's purposes: people would benefit and it was even possible that no one would be hurt.

     It seemed to him that OOO really _wasn't_ quite human anymore.  People could lie about their desires, after all.

     With a flick of his wrist, Ankh threw a cell medal at the man and he fell in shock as his desire took shape.

     "A falcon," the king said.  "Appropriate."  The falcon grabbed the man roughly and deposited him at the door of his home, then darted away before the guards could react.

     "I don't understand," the man said.

     "You wanted to bring game to your family, didn't you?" Ankh spat, annoyed.  "My Yummy will do it for you."

     "But I didn't mean--" he fell silent at a look from the king.  "I am most grateful, my lord," he said, bowing to OOO.

     "Get back into your house," Ankh snarled.  "It is where you should be."

     The hunter hesitated, looked at the king, then bowed again.  "Of course," he said, and went inside.

     The next person wanted to kill highwaymen.  The woman after that pined for flowers and herbs to add to her apothecary.  One by one by one, he gave their desires shape and watched those pieces of him fly away.

     It was when Ankh faltered, stumbled, that OOO waved the next man down and declared that he himself was tired.  He set Ankh down in his own cot.

     "I am sorry," he murmured, settling into his chair.  "We used too many today?"

     "It's necessary," Ankh groaned, although he couldn't stop the whimper that chased his words and couldn't keep from curling in on himself as much as the cot allowed.  "Their desires aren't quite strong enough.  It's the only way to get the kind of harvest that you want."

     OOO reached out and ran his fingers through the feathers on Ankh's head.  Ankh knew secondhand that a human would have felt more than simple pressure at the touch, although he knew only because of the pleasure they clearly derived from touching one another.  He understood that the touch was one a parent might have given a child, for comfort.

     Ankh didn't need comfort, because he couldn't feel the way that a human did, but he didn't push OOO away.  It was easier.

     "One Yummy from each harvest all to yourself," OOO said.  "I need you strong."

    Over the next few weeks, Ankh learned a few benefits to working with humans.  OOO never asked where he went unless Ankh got hurt in a fight with one of the other Greeed or their Yummies (usually he was protecting one of his own).  OOO did not taunt or get shifty around him.  And Ankh could watch the humans under OOO's care all he wanted.

     "They're all so weak," he told OOO in disgust, despite his fascination.  Several children had died just in the short time he'd been here, from simple things like falling too far or shivers that wouldn't stop.

     "That's why they need a god more than a king," OOO answered.  He sighed tiredly, rubbing at his face.  He had been doing that a lot lately.  

     Ankh stared at him with a little confusion.  The king's desires were so complex, he barely felt equipped to understand them.  "You desire the power of a god... because the humans in your care _need_ a god?"

     "You need one too," OOO chuckled.  "And yes."  He brought his right hand up to Ankh's view, gloved in yellow.  He had been spending a lot more time transformed lately, too.  "I will heal this broken world with my own hand."

     It occured to him that OOO was implying that Ankh was under his care, too.  Ankh didn't argue-- there was at least some truth to it, he reasoned.

 


	5. Chapter 5

     "Is this where you disappeared to then, Ankh?"

     They chose to storm the castle because OOO believed that a man took the fight to his enemies.

     "You've thrown your lot in with him."

     The fight was long and protracted; cores were taken and abused, cell medals were burned through, especially on OOO's part, Yummies were slaughtered and the alchemist's chains were ripped clear from the floor and his body tossed somewhere Ankh didn't see.

     "Why?"

     By the morning, the fight had made its way to the chapel.  OOO stood for a moment before the stained glass windows-- was he resting?  Ankh had trouble believing that his king prayed.  He sent a blast of fire down to warn the others off, landed behind OOO.

     "I'm only following my desire."

      _That_ was what OOO said as his claws pierced Ankh through, catching his cores between them.  "I'm sorry, Ankh.  But this is the only way to achieve my desire."

     _Damn you._

     OOO took the stolen cores, all of them, and pulled them into himself.

     Everything was a lie.

     His king screamed.

     Ankh reached out, for what he wasn't sure anymore.  Could he rescue his stolen cores?  His body wouldn't move.  He would work with it.

    **_DAMN YOU._**

     Searing pain, the most vivid thing that Ankh had ever felt.  They were all screaming, the king, the Greeed, and he.

     And then he knew no more.


	6. Chapter 6

     The alchemist came awake with a gasp, coughing as his lungs rejected the dust that rushed in with each breath.

     He felt something running down his face and touched his brow.  His fingers came away bright with blood.

     The alchemist staggered to his feet.  He was so hungry.  The monsters had finally allowed him to eat rats, probably because they'd seen how weak he'd been getting and needed to feed from him themselves, but it had only kept him alive.  They'd let him catch one per day, and Gamel, the disgusting brute, would chase away the rest, laughing.

     His belly gnawed at him like the rats had gnawed at his legs, but his curiousity, his other hunger, was greater, had always been greater.  He had to see what had happened.

     So he followed the wreckage, as best he could.  There was a lot of back and forth, and it was difficult to say where one path ended and another began, but he finally wobbled his way into the chapel.

     Ankh's body was wrapped in bandages like an undeveloped Yummy, unresponsive even when he kicked it.  Not that there was a lot of force to the kick-- it wasn't for lack of trying, but the alchemist was having trouble staying upright.

     The driver lay atop a stone sarcophagaus.  There were a few cell medals scattered around the floor.  The wicked king's final resting place, he realized suddenly.

     The alchemist threw his head back and laughed.  He was the only real winner here, despite not even being in the fight.  He was alive, and he had learned so much.

     He would write all this down.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Wonderful Movie is not in my canon (for this story anyway) but OOO turned out a little more like Kougami than I expected him to.
> 
> I can still buy that they're related.


End file.
